Lesson #177 – Whispers of the summer night.

As (Anko) Uehara is sitting on the bench waiting for (Noboru) Yoshikawa, suddenly a middle-aged man appeared in front of her staring at her intently (the same man who offered Aizawa lodgings in volume 16??). Uehara started to become puzzled and asked the man on why he must stare at her, and he replied by asking her back whether she is a girl running away from her home. He then commented that because she is seen to sit at the bench at such late hours, she must be a girl who runs away from home, and he adds that such things are not good for her. Uehara tried to deny that she is a runaway girl, but the man interjected, asking her not to lie to him.

He then continued, saying that he always heartbroken to see runaway girls like Uehara walking around aimlessly like a bad girls as Uehara protested that he is wrong. Uehara started to walk away with the man hot on her heels asking her to follow him somewhere for dinner, so that she will be able to tell him on why she must runs away from home. He then tells her that there’s a hotel nearby and she can sleeps there than sleeping on the streets, and he will pay for it too. Then he explained that he is doing all that because he is a Good Samaritan who always pity girls who are running away from home. Uehara started to speed up her walks, and the man asked her on why she must walk too fast, and started to conclude that she is feeling scared now, so she should just go and follow him.

Suddenly both of them hear someone screaming at the man not to mess with their friend, and to go away from Uehara. Both Uehara and the man turned towards the direction of the voice with the puzzled Uehara thinks whether the voice is really her friends. The voice then says that Uehara is his friend, and 3 unidentified men suddenly appeared. 2 of them started to beat the middle-aged man up while the leader cursed at him for stalking a lonely girl like Uehara. He turned towards her and assured her that she is now safe, and called her with the name Akemi. Uehara is shocked to be called with that name, and the boss of the group who “saved” her from the middle-aged man then guessed that her name Yumi and a few other names. Meanwhile, his gang members started to extort money from the middle-aged man, as the boss asked Uehara whether she have any problems if she is called as Kyoko.

In the next scene, the 3 men are now shown accompanying Uehara as one f them tells her that it’s dangerous for a beautiful girl like her to walk alone in the middle of the night. They then suggested that they will accompany her back to her home, adding that they have a big luxury car with leather seats, so sleeping in the car will not be a problem. One of them then interjected, saying that since they managed to get some money from the middle-aged man, they and Uehara should go instead to Shonan prefecture to have supper, and the panicking Uehara tried to decline their invitation. Hearing that, they asked on why she must always rejected their suggestion, and reminded that since they have saved her from the middle-aged man, she should at least take a ride in their car.

Suddenly Uehara screamed to an “incoming” policeman that the 3 men that walked with her had earlier extorts money from someone. Hearing the word “police”, the 3 men panics and started to run away, much to Uehara’s relief. She then looks around to see couples as she commented to herself that the earlier incident is very scary, and walking in a safari holding raw meats on her hands is much safer than walking alone in the park at night. She then sees a couple kissing with each other and exclaimed that she really doesn’t want to see one yet again.

Suddenly someone greeted her from behind, and Uehara instinctively lashed at the person who greeted him, thinking that another pervert is out to stalk her. She swings her handbag toward the caller, screaming that even she looks very nice, but she can easily become angry like a tigress. The handbag hits the caller right on his face, and it turned out that the caller is actually Yoshikawa, and he falls down with blood spurting out from his nose, much to Uehara’s shock.

In the next scene, Uehara and Yoshikawa are sitting on a lonely bench while Yoshikawa treats his bleeding nose. She apologized, saying that she has been stalked by lots of perverts when she waited for him, thus when he called her earlier, she thinks that he is one of them. Yoshikawa protested, asking on why she didn’t take a look before hitting someone, adding that his nose is in pain. Uehara countered, saying that he shouldn’t just called her out from nowhere, because she will become nervous automatically when she hears the voices of men after what have happened to her earlier. Yoshikawa reminded her that she is the one who picked the park as the place where they should meet, and Uehara now tried to find excuses for the fact…

Yoshikawa then tells Uehara that he wants to lie down momentarily, and she should help him to massage the back of his neck because more blood has started to come out from his nose. Uehara panics when she sees the blood and suddenly suggested that if he wants to lie down, he can lie down on her thighs, and Yoshikawa does just what she have suggested. Meanwhile, as Yoshikawa lies down facing Uehara’s torso, some passersby started to whisper between themselves to take a look at them, because Yoshikawa’s head are placed directly above that “part” :). Another one whispered that Uehara (now look very nervous) may not have wear any panties, but even that it’s true, it will be hard for Yoshikawa to see anything because it’s dark at the park ^_^.

Right after the passerby walk far enough from them, Yoshikawa promptly jumped from the thighs of the obviously very relieved Uehara. She asked whether his nose is still bleeding, and he replied that his bleeding nose is almost cured now. Hearing that, Uehara commented that he doesn’t have to lie on her thigh anymore, and laughed nervously. They then takes deep breaths, as they commented on why adults nowadays only judge things by looking only at their cover, as Yoshikawa asked her that they are not lovers in any way and she agreed.

Uehara then gives the Onimusha Warlord game disc to Yoshikawa and asked that there’s anything else to talk about. Yoshikawa is relieved to see the disc, saying that (Eikichi) Onizuka had sent him e-mails for him to send the game to him as soon as possible. He then takes his own bicycle and greeted Uehara goodbye but Uehara asked not to go yet. Yoshikawa asked her on why, and she started to become nervous again, saying that there’s nothing, and it’s just that she is bored because she have nothing to do. Yoshikawa is puzzled to hear it, and exclaimed that the night is getting late even if she wants to do anything. Uehara then tried to find excuses to explain what she wants to do when she suddenly noticed 2 girls wearing kimono with one of them holding a plastic bag filled with water and 3 goldfishes inside it. She then asked Yoshikawa whether he sees the 2 girls wearing kimono and wondered whether the nearby temple is holding any activities. Yoshikawa replied that Uehara seems to be right, adding that he had read that the Kitamashi temple is holding a festival now.

Suddenly, the blushing Uehara asked Yoshikawa to go with her to the festival, and the stunned Yoshikawa agreed. Uehara is shocked that Yoshikawa agreed to go out with her, and asked him to wait because she wants to ride her bicycle home to change into her own kimono, and Yoshikawa murmured that by the time she finished changing into a kimono, the festival has already ended. As they ride their bicycles, Uehara assured him that she will change into her kimono as fast as she can, and praised herself that after all, everything is going to the plan, as Yoshikawa asked her to slow down…

In the middle of the summer night, I have decided to bravely take the first step of my own long way of love… - Anko Uehara.

FINISHED